For Egg Donors

FAQ

Our current egg donation compensation for your time, commitment and services is $8,000 on average for a completed egg donation cycle (i.e. retrieval of eggs). You can earn up to $14,000 depending on your qualifications and the number of eggs you produce. If your cycle is canceled due to no fault of your own, compensation is $1,000.

We require our local NYC egg donors to be between the ages of 21 to 34 years of age, though exceptions are occasionally made for women between ages 18 to 21 and 34 to 35. For donors who will have to travel to NYC (i.e., those who live outside of the NYC metropolitan area), our age requirement is between 21 and 29.

No. We accept egg donors from all over the United States, as long as you are willing and able to travel to our center in New York City for egg retrieval. However, we do cannot work with donors from outside the United States.

In general, we require all donors to have social security number or a valid work permit. However, if you do not have a social security number or a work permit, there are two options:

For a donor who has spent more than 31 days over the last year, or over 183 days over the last 3 years, in the United States, CHR will withhold 28% of the donor compensation, to be remitted as taxes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in accordance with federal tax laws.

For a donor who has spent less time than above in the U.S., CHR will withhold 30% of the donor compensation, to be remitted as taxes to the IRS, in accordance with federal tax laws.

In either of the two cases above, you may file a tax return with the IRS later to receive a reimbursement of a part or a whole of the withheld taxes.

It depends. After you complete your egg donor application, it typically takes a month or so for you to complete the interviews and preliminary testing. After that, whether and when you are matched with a recipient depends on what kind of egg donors our center's patients are looking for at that time. Some donors may never be matched; other donors are matched almost immediately after they join our egg donor program.

The egg donation process starts with an application. Once you are approved as a donor after a series of interviews and tests, you will be matched with a recipient. (You may never be matched with a recipient.) The egg donation cycle itself usually takes about 3-4 weeks, and you will be administering self-injections of hormonal medications to help your ovaries produce multiple eggs. During this phase, you will have frequent office visits to monitor your progress. When our physicians determine that your eggs are ready for ovulation, you will trigger ovulation with a different type of injection, and egg retrieval is performed on the next day. For more details, please see the step-by-step guide for egg donation. If you are considering donating eggs at our NYC fertility center despite your residence outside the NYC metropolitan area, this page lays out the donation logistics.

The number of eggs you produce in your egg donation cycle largely determines your egg donor compensation. Following your clinical coordinator's instructions regarding how to use the medications and when to administer your injections will ensure that a good number of eggs develop. Donors who have donated successfully will earn more in our program, as do donors who are designated as "high demand." For more information about how our egg donation program's donor compensation works, please see the egg donation fee & compensation page.

Once on fertility drugs, you need to ensure that you have only protected sexual intercourse for that month as well as the month following egg donation. From start to finish, you will generally have 10-12 doctor visits; the majority of these visits occur during the two weeks prior to egg retrieval. As these visits take place early in the morning, it is recommended that you live in or near New York, NY, where CHR is located. Donors living outside of the NYC metropolitan area will be required to travel for 3 nights at the end of your donation cycle.

Egg retrieval is always performed under ultrasound guidance. However, there is always a risk that a needle may puncture surrounding tissue or organs causing injury, bleeding and/or infection. There is also a small risk (less than 5%) of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. During ovarian hyperstimulation, the ovaries become enlarged and fluid may collect in the abdominal cavity causing bloating; a weight gain of 5-10 pounds and severe pelvic pain may occur. Hospitalization may be required if ovarian hyperstimulation progresses to a severe state. In addition, certain studies have suggested that some ovulation drugs are associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer; research in this area is ongoing, however, and more recent data refutes such a risk.

If you sign up for the anonymous egg donation process, the couple will not find out who you are. They will know characteristics about you, but not your name or any other information that could lead to your identification.

The medications you will need to take are injectables. You will be required to give yourself injections one time per day for the first two weeks of the egg donation process and two times per day for the second two weeks. CHR nurses will teach you how to self-inject safely and are available 24 hours a day to answer any questions.

We use intravenous (IV) sedation, which is administered by an anesthesiologist. Occasionally, you may experience short-term side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, sleepiness. Therefore, we instruct you to rest for 24 hours after egg donation. You are also required to be picked up by somebody after the egg donation and must not drive for 24 hours.

We recommend modified bed rest at home for 24 hours after egg donation. For donors who need to travel to NYC for egg retrieval, we will require 3 nights and 2 days in NYC. (Travel costs will be covered by us.)